1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel tank arrangement structure for a vehicle, which is designed to position a fuel tank under a floor panel (including a rear floor) forming a floor of a passenger compartment of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, a vehicle fuel tank has been typically positioned rearward relative to a kick-up portion and under a rear floor. In this context, design requirements for vehicles generally include ensuring a foot space for a passenger seated in a rear seat, and ensuring a capacity of a fuel tank.
While the rear-seat passenger's foot space is determined by a frontward/rearward or longitudinal position of a kick-up portion, an arrangement design therefore involves an antinomic problem that a kick-up portion displaced rearward (or in a rearward direction of a vehicle) to provide a wider foot space causes difficulty in ensuring a sufficient fuel tank capacity, and a kick-up portion displaced frontward (or in a frontward direction of the vehicle) to provide a larger fuel tank capacity causes difficulty in ensuring a sufficient foot space.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-63389 discloses a structure where a fuel tank is positioned rearward relative to a kick-up portion and under a rear floor. This structure is designed to form a downward protruding convex portion in each of the rear floor and a seat cushion of a rear seat placed on the rear floor and correspondingly form a concave portion in a top deck of the fuel tank. Thus, a capacity of the fuel tank is inevitably reduced due to the concave portion to cause a problem about difficulty in ensuring a sufficient fuel tank capacity.
In a structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 9-86245, a seat cushion of a rear seat is mounted on a rear floor extending rearward from a kick-up portion, and divided into an upper rear-seat cushion main body and a lower rear-seat cushion divisional portion. The rear floor is formed with a downward protruding concave portion to allow the rear-seat cushion divisional portion to be left on the rear floor when the rear seat is rotated frontward and folded. Thus, if a fuel tank is positioned rearward relative to the kick-up portion and under the rear floor, the concave portion will undesirably hinder the fuel tank from having a sufficient capacity.
In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle fuel tank arrangement structure capable of satisfying both needs for ensuring a passenger compartment space, particularly a rear-seat passenger's foot space, and ensuring a capacity of a fuel tank, and allowing a dead space particularly on the lower front side of a rear seat to be effectively used as a rear-seat passenger's foot space.